When I was little, EVERYONE made fun of me. Probably too waddly, too square. And then one day my dad came home with a board. It wasn’t just a gift, it was a path. MY PATH.

Gameplay and ControlsIn Rising Board 3D you take control of a Penguin who’s calling in life is to surf. The gameplay is simple, yet incredibly enjoyable. Your goal is to become the Pop Island King of the waves. I want to go on and on about how much fun the game is, but I have to point out how deceptively simple it is as well. I really am pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had. Okay, so the ranting needs to stop so I can get on with my review. The whole game consists of you surfing through random levels, performing tricks, and collecting sun points (which can be used to purchase new boards.) As you surf, you’ll be focusing on performing tricks at will, and also when prompted. Each successful move will generate more sun points for you to collect. You will receive more Sun Points for completing the promoted tricks. As you surf you will also see Sun Points just floating on the water or high in the air and it’s your goal to collect as many as you can, all while avoiding the land masses that appear. There are only two ways you fail a level, you either don’t land your board evenly or you land on well, the land (duh!)

Everything you do or collect is recorded on the bottom screen. The records are divided into the following sections; Performance, Distance, Multiplier, Tricks and Sun Spots. Next to all of these records, save the Sun Spots, you will see your Best records so it encourages you to beat your last high score.

Now, in order to make things more interesting you’ll want to purchase new boards and upgrade the ones you have, there are 6 in all. The boards aren’t just skins on the same object, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Unlocking all 6 and maxing them out is no easy feat as you will need thousands of sun points to do this, so it’ s a good thing Rising Board is so much fun. I know I can’t guarantee it, but I’m incredibly confident that once you play the game, you’ll be hooked!

The game controls simple using the circle pad and the B and A buttons. You’ll hold A to speed up and release it jump. In order to perform tricks, you’ll use a combination of the previously mentioned buttons. The controls are incredibly simple and intuitive. As I’ve mentioned already, you’ll be dodging land masses, islands, and rocks. In order to do this, you’ll have to navigate around them, or jump over them with A. The cool thing about this is that when you jump you can keep pressing A rapidly to ‘fly’. Not only does this get you out of trouble, it gives you more air to perform more tricks.

Visuals and Sound

The graphics are great and the use of 3D, while subtle, is done quite well. One of my favorite parts to the visuals is when you pause the game, how everything still moves, aside from your surfboard. The waves are still rolling, clouds are moving, the waves even have this awesome shimmering effect and to top it all off, your character is waving like crazy! The music and sound effects are smooth and subtle. I really don’t know what to compare them to, but it’s enjoyable. The two catchiest sound bits are when you take a hit – your character will flip around and yell for a couple of seconds. The other cool sound effect is when you end a level – some upbeat music plays for a couple of seconds.

Perhaps you are still a doubter. If so, let me attempt to remove your doubt. Rising Board 3D is quirky and fun and you will enjoy yourself. For just $2.99, I’ve already sunk 4 hours into the game and still have more to unlock. Plus, it’s just a great pick up and play game that provides waves of enjoyment.

Final Score: 5 out of 5

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

reddit

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

reddit

About the author:

Jeremy’s love of gaming, especially Nintendo started in the late 80’s when his parents bought him and his older brother an NES. Many hours were spent playing Mario and Duck Hunt. Eventually Jeremy graduated to bigger and better games and systems, like the SNES, GC, Wii, 3DS, and finally to the Wii U. Ask him what the defining moment of his childhood gaming was and he’ll answer, “the day I beat Zelda 2.” To this day that game holds a special place in his heart. His favorite types of games are platformers.

Jeremy started blogging for NintendoFuse in October 2010. He started off as a lurker on the forums who won a free copy of And Yet It Moves on WiiWare. From there he realized he liked the forums and the site and wanted to remain a part of it. He was brought on board shortly thereafter and has helped post news and reviews for the past couple of years. Currently Jeremy has taken a step back to focus on family and school. He assists in minor back-end site maintenance from time to time.

Next Article

Hey Sammy, there are multiple stages. However, they are generated at random, so you never get to choose what stage you’ll be in next. For the most part, I found this refreshing. Although, my favorite stage was this one where there were no islands, it was just big waves and occasionally some rocks where the water was low. This level allowed you to just pull off some major moves, fly to the sky and enjoy the waves. So, tying that back into the randomly generated levels, I always found myself hoping I would get the major waves level more than any other.